A daily bit of learning, cut-and-pasted from your and my favorite online encyclopedia.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Trypanophobia

[The fear of getting stuck.]Trypanophobia is the extreme and irrational fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles. It is occasionally referred to as aichmophobia, belonephobia, or enetophobia, names that are technically incorrect because they simply denote a “fear of pins/needles” and do not refer to the medical aspect of trypanophobia. The name that is in common usage is simply needle phobia, while the correct scientific term is trypanophobia....

It is estimated that at least 10% of American adults are trypanophobic, and it is likely that the actual number is larger, as the most severe cases are never documented due to the tendency of the sufferer to simply avoid all medical treatment....

It is suspected that the genetically linked forms of trypanophobia date from early human history. In early time periods, genes that predisposed a person to avoid physical injuries such as piercing, stabbing or other skin penetration would be more likely to survive, given that in those days, death from bleeding, hemorrhaging or subsequent infection of a wound, were far more common than they are today. Over time, the complex bundle of symptoms that comprise a vaso-vagal shock response were hard-wired into the genetic makeups of certain humans, and these symptoms are still expressed today in the form of vaso-vagal trypanophobia....